No charges for 123mph police driver

A POLICE officer spared a speeding conviction after being snapped at 123mph while on a 999 call.

The unnamed driver was among 272 officers in Tayside granted an ‘emergency service exemption’ since April 2013.

The officer drove at 53mph over the limit on the A90 Aberdeen to Dundee road.

He was responding to a sighting of a man suspected of committing several serious crimes on May 11, 2015.

A police spokesman said: ‘Officers from the road policing unit were tasked to support a dynamic operation on May 11, which resulted in a 23-year-old man being charged after he was wanted for a series of crimes committed across the Tayside area.

‘The officers involved were all trained and authorised advanced police drivers and a statutory exemption in relation to the application of speed limits was met in these circumstances. The safety of the public is the primary consideration (and) continuous dynamic risk assessment forms an integral part of all police driver training.’

Sandy Allan of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents Scotland, said: ‘We mustn’t forget, even if the emergency service driver is appropriately trained, other road users are not and often don’t appreciate the speeds at which responding vehicles are travelling.’

A total of 298 police officers have been caught speeding in Tayside since April 2013, with 272 granted emergency service exemption. Two were reported for the incidents.